Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 8, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/288453/Maligning-the-RSS.html
Rahul Gandhi should have known better
It is shocking, to say the least, that the
Congress general secretary should have equated the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
to the Students' Islamic Movement of India during a Press conference in Bhopal
on Wednesday. It was a gratuitous comment that need not have been made or
elaborated upon; the heir apparent to the masnad of Delhi should have known
better than to say, "I know only that both SIMI and the RSS are fanatical
and hold fundamentalist views." By saying so, he has placed on display
his appalling ignorance of both organisations as also of the nation's history
and its current affairs. Irrespective of whether or not one subscribes to
the RSS's philosophy or worldview, few would make bold to suggest that it
is an organisation wedded to anti-national activities. Close to a century
its pracharaks and cadre have dedicated their lives to the service of the
nation and its people. Whenever and wherever there has been a natural disaster,
the RSS's cadre have waded in to assist the civil administration, most recently
in the aftermath of the super-cyclone in Odisha. It was the RSS that sent
in its cadre to salvage the bodies of victims after two planes collided mid-air
a short distance from Delhi: All the dead were Muslims. In remote areas and
dense forests where the Government is yet to send in its officials, the RSS
runs schools and development programmes for tribals. Despite its track record,
the RSS continues to be vilified and maligned by pseudo-secularists: It has
been banned thrice since independence, but on each occasion the ban had to
be lifted as it failed to pass judicial scrutiny. But these details are obviously
unknown to Mr Rahul Gandhi; he is equally unaware of the fact that his great
grandfather invited the RSS to participate in the Republic Day parade of 1963
for its unstinted assistance to the Government during the 1962 war with China.
No other non-Government organisation has been extended this privilege. In
sharp contrast, SIMI has been banned for its role in seditious and terrorist
activities; many of its members are in jail. Further comment is not needed.
What merits comment is the remarkable similarity
between the outrageous comments of Mr Rahul Gandhi and those of another Congress
general secretary, Mr Digvijay Singh, who takes particular delight in extolling
the virtues of criminals and exonerating them of their ghastly crimes simply
because they happen to be Muslims. The abuse that Mr Singh heaps on the RSS
is of a piece with his perverse politics of pandering to communal forces;
he brazenly indulges in defamatory statements and in the process denigrates
and maligns Hindus as a community. Thrown out of power and denied the loaves
and fishes of office by the people of Madhya Pradesh, he has lost all sense
of decorum and balance. It would not be incorrect to presume that he got Mr
Rahul Gandhi to repeat, parrot-like, the vile language that comes naturally
to him, while in Bhopal, to derive cheap satisfaction from the belief that
he had hit back at the organisation that facilitated his eviction from the
Chief Minister's office. Little does he realise that he is seen as no more
than an object of pity and ridicule. It's a shame Mr Rahul Gandhi chose to
fall prey to Mr Singh's wiles.
